To Love and Be Loved(17)

‘We can’t have our girl walking to the church; you will travel in style!’ Her mum clapped.

‘I really will! I love you all so much!’ Happiness spun her in a cloud of joy that was sweet, perfumed and glorious. She breathed it in, knowing there would rarely be moments like this in her life, when everything was perfect.

‘And we love you,’ her mother called in response.

Bella fetched the small, rickety wooden stepladder from the side alleyway and the photographer continued to snap as Merrin hitched up her skirt and used the ladder to climb up on to the fat pillows that had been placed on the bed of the wooden cart. Sitting up straight with her legs now dangling over the edge, she looked at the view out over the bay where the sun, high in the sky, sent diamonds to dapple the sea.

‘Are you coming up, Dad?’ She patted the pillow by her side.

‘’Course, but I thought I’d sit up with Jarv.’ He made his way to the front and climbed up. Adept as he was at stepping on and off ladders on boats whilst rolling on the sea, this short hoick up to the driver’s bench was a doddle, even for a man trussed up like a turkey.

‘Don’t worry, Merry!’ Bella climbed the ladder next and took up a spot at the back of the cart. ‘We won’t let you take your trip to the gallows alone!’

Before Merrin had a chance to question the plan, her gran was being shoved, bottom first, up on to the cart by Ruby. Next came her mum and, finally, her sister, until all the women were settled on pillows, sitting in a sea of floaty lilac silk, the soft reams of her ivory taffeta gown, all set off with the abundance of flowers in their hair, held in their hands and looped around the cart itself.

Their laughter was loud and drawn from the deep wells of happiness inside them. This was some day! The photographer stood on the lane and clicked like crazy, capturing the sight of the cart in all its glory, trundling down the lane with its raucous, floral-framed crew.

Locals and tourists alike – one of whom looked a lot like Aunty Margaret, sporting a rather dazzling fascinator as she made her way to the church – stopped to wave or stare.

‘I’m getting married!’ Merrin shouted out before falling backwards into her bridesmaids and kin, who captured her arms and kissed her face. She lay looking up at the blue sky with nary a cloud to spoil the view and knew that she had never been happier than she was at that precise moment.

Word seemed to travel ahead that the bride was en route and the residents of Port Charles who were not already in the pretty church at the top of the hill awaiting her arrival came out on to the streets to call her name or wave. It was big news in their little village that one of their own, a Kellow girl no less, was marrying the boy from the big house.

‘Look, Merry!’ Bella pointed as she pushed her friend up into a sitting position. The side of the Old Boat Shed by the slipway had been decked with a large banner that read ‘Merry & Digby’ and had a large love heart painted beside the words. She bit her lip; the love, gestures and supreme effort, all for her, were almost overwhelming. She let her head hang down and breathed slowly through her nose, feeling a little light-headed and wishing that she, too, had necked a hefty bacon sandwich before leaving.

‘I . . . I don’t know what to say,’ she mumbled.

‘You don’t have to say anything, love, just you enjoy it!’ Her gran beamed and waved to some of the onlookers as though she were the bride. Her mum wiped her eyes and nose with her lace-edged handkerchief.

The troupe inelegantly alighted at the bottom of the hill to spare Daisy the effort of travelling up it with a heavy load, and walked en masse up the street to the entrance of the church. The bells rang out loudly and strangers gathered on the kerbside to watch Merrin and her entourage, each holding up a section of her skirt, pass. The situation was as ridiculous as it looked and Merrin found the whole charade amusing.

‘I feel like a queen!’ she giggled.

‘Today you are a queen!’ Ruby replied.

With all the fun and their unusual arrival at the church most of her nerves had disappeared and, if anything, she felt more eager than ever to get on with it.

‘He’s in there! I haven’t seen him for twenty-four hours and he’s in that building!’ She clamped her teeth and jumped on the spot, making her heels click clack on the tarmac, knowing that in mere minutes Digby would turn and she would smile at him, just as she had imagined.

‘Calm down, love! We don’t want him to think you’re too keen!’ Ruby advised.

‘She’s marrying him, you daft cow, how much keener can she be?’ Bella tutted. ‘Look at her! She’s beaming. If I, on the other hand, was about to make a lifelong commitment, I would be shit scared.’

‘All right, you two, settle down!’ Heather Kellow kept the peace the way she had since they’d all been at playschool, when regular fights would break out between them, usually over Play-Doh or whose turn it was to go on the trike. ‘Right, this is where we leave you, my darling.’ Her mum kissed Merrin softly on the cheek and ran her fingertips under her chin. ‘My amazing girl. May you and Digby be as happy as your daddy and me. That’s all I want for you. All I’ve ever wanted for you.’

‘And walk carefully up the aisle – don’t bloody fall over!’ Her gran offered the sage advice as she linked arms with her daughter-in-law, and the two women disappeared inside the wide oak door. Merrin watched them walk away slowly, with a small reluctance to their gait and leaving a kind of sorrow in their wake. And she understood.